


too close for comfort (or, 5 instances of the same selfie and 1 new photo besides)

by yxurstruly



Category: SK8 the Infinity (Anime)
Genre: 5+1 Things, ADHD Reki, Feelings Realization, I posted this before I saw ep 9 sdknfskdf oh dear, M/M, Reki's love language is touch I will die on this hill, Slow Burn, bless his heart, please use this fic to heal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-06
Updated: 2021-03-06
Packaged: 2021-03-12 13:36:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,735
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29885367
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yxurstruly/pseuds/yxurstruly
Summary: Reki knows two things: he likes his new phone background, and he likes being around Langa.
Relationships: Hasegawa Langa/Kyan Reki
Comments: 14
Kudos: 395





	too close for comfort (or, 5 instances of the same selfie and 1 new photo besides)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [surrealmeme](https://archiveofourown.org/users/surrealmeme/gifts).



> Heads up: there's a bit of a bloody injury at the beginning of part 5--if that's not your thing, you can skip from "Start rinsing" to "To Reki's surprise." It's brief but it's there; just thought I'd mention it.
> 
> Enjoy!

1.

Sundays at the skate park were the best. Sometimes Reki and Langa would arrive minutes after they each woke up in the morning and stay clear through to night. Sometimes they’d only remember to head out after multiple texts and occasional calls from each of their mothers fussing over their sleep schedules with school the next day.

Today was shaping up to be one of those Sundays—if not ‘til the sky turned dark, the energy was such that Reki knew they’d for sure be staying until sunset. They had skated to the A&W for lunch, then quickly back again before the park could get too crowded.

But it never did get crowded on Sundays, and so Reki preferred them over Saturdays and even (especially) over weekdays after school. And so did Langa, Reki thought—though he knew Langa liked a crowd, in his own quiet way, he skated no worse without one, and the one-on-one time was, to Reki at least, more exhilarating than any roaring audience could be.

It was a brilliant day, barely a cloud in sight, and as the two finished up their lunches and crumpled up their hamburger wrappers, Reki was struck with the sudden sentimental urge to capture the moment.

“Oi,” he said, opening Instagram and swiping to access the camera, “c’mere.”

Langa leaned into Reki’s side and the smile that lit Reki’s face was instantaneous. He slung his free arm over Langa’s shoulders, tangling his hand playfully in Langa’s hair and pressing their faces together, cheek to cheek, for a tight-framed shot.

“Dork,” Langa teased, gathering Reki’s trash as Reki posted the photo to his story.

“You love me,” Reki called.

Langa laughed. “I something you, that’s for sure,” he said, stomping on the end of his board and sending it leaping up into his waiting arm. He offered a hand to Reki and pulled him to his feet.

Reki had predicted wrong. They stayed way past sunset.

2.

Reki should have been more thoughtful about picking his days off.

What had happened was that Manager Oka had approached him while he had been in a stress-induced board-sanding frenzy in the workshop and reminded him calmly and kindly that he had three vacation days saved up, and that he should feel free to take one any time school or S got too stressful.

Right away Reki had taken the following Monday off, thinking for sure it would give him some much-needed free time to fill however he pleased.

What he forgot to consider was that Langa would still be working. So there he was, Monday afternoon, throwing open the door to Dope Sketch just as he would on any other Monday.

The shop was empty save for Langa, who was sitting behind the counter, scribbling on a pad of paper. Manager Oka was out on an errand, Langa explained, leaving his newest recruit to get a head start on some financial crap that he would “smooth out later.”

Reki paced, fingering the boards and wheels and stickers, familiar as ever, as he passed them by. His brain had never been one for keeping track of time, and apparently it wasn’t one for noticing when he had started humming to himself, either, because Langa called him out on it before he even realized he was doing it.

“Are you just gonna mill around?” asked Langa.

“I’m just killing time,” grinned Reki sheepishly.

“C’mere, you can sit in my lap until I’m done working.”

The invitation fell from Langa’s mouth so conversationally that for a second Reki wasn’t sure if he had heard him right.

Langa had turned back to his notepad. Reki couldn’t see his face.

_ It’s better to learn by doing rather than asking questions _ , Reki’s brain chimed helpfully, and then it marched him over to Langa’s side, behind the counter.

Langa did nothing to acknowledge Reki’s new closeness except turn his lap towards him, and if that wasn’t a clear invitation, Reki didn’t know what was.

But this was weird, right? Like, this was…weird? That’s what Reki’s suddenly hammering heart was trying to tell him…yeah?

He swallowed down the bizarre burst of adrenaline—this was stupid—and lowered himself gingerly onto Langa’s leg.

A million worries flooded his mind—What if I crush him? What if he was kidding? Am I doing this wrong?  _ Is this weird? _ —but Langa remained quiet and focused, so Reki allowed himself to relax.

Just as when he was pacing, though, there was nothing to really  _ do _ . He took out his phone to scroll mindlessly for a bit and brought his elbows to rest on the counter.

The way the pair was configured, with Langa hunched over his notepad and calculator and Reki, yeah, more or less in his lap, made it so that when Reki shifted his position to keep his back from cramping up, his only other option was to treat Langa even more like a chair—to lean back into his chest a bit and rest his head by Langa’s collarbone.

Which was a pretty comfortable position, actually—enough so that Reki didn’t think twice about his contented sigh.

His mother texted him to ask if he’d pick up cabbage on his way home. The notification disappeared before he could respond to it. He closed Twitter.

“Is that us?”

“Huh?” Reki looked up from the “ _ sure _ ” he had sent his mother and almost knocked heads with Langa. Langa gestured at Reki’s phone with the pencil in his hand.

“Your background.”

Reki closed the message app and sure enough, there he and Langa were, from that Sunday at the skate park their cheeks smushed together. Reki’s face flamed. “Uh, yeah.”

“Why’d you pick that picture?”

“…Huh?” The stupid senseless adrenaline from earlier was back. Langa’s tone was hard to place; when Reki looked up again to study his face, his eyes seemed innocent enough.

“I look weird in that one,” Langa said.

_ Oh! So that’s why he had been worried. (Why else, dumbass?) _

“I like you in this picture!” Reki countered. “It’s a good picture. You look good in this picture.” Langa gave a playfully bashful scoff but said nothing more on the matter, once again back to doing his actual job.

Reki shut off his phone before he could stare at the wallpaper for too long.

“‘M almost done,” Langa murmured, already refocused. “Then you ‘n’ me can get out of here.”

_ You ‘n’ me can get out of here. _ They were just heading out to the park like usual to try to perfect a few flips, but the way Langa said it made it sound like an adventure.

Reki grinned and jogged his leg up and down on top of Langa’s. That’s just what being friends with Langa was like: an adventure.

3.

Reki was hard at work. Some guy had singled him out at S a couple nights back, praising Snow’s incredibly unique board design. He had requested a similar one for himself.

Reki’s price was high—he knew how to strike a deal—and for good reason. He prided himself on his hard work, his painstaking effort, and his unmatched attention to every last detail.

What he did not pride himself on was his time management skills.

So here he was in his garage, cutting, sanding, barely four hours until the designated delivery time. He cursed himself internally—he would barely have time to test the custom board before delivering it, if he had any time to do so at all.

On the workbench, his phone chimed, interrupting his music.

langa: ok, on my way

Reki smiled. Langa had been worried that his presence would distract Reki from getting the board done in time, but Reki knew that whatever it was he was doing, he did it better when Langa was there. And that was the truth.

Reki sang quietly with his “ _ in the zone _ ” playlist as he worked. He didn’t hear Langa come in.

But there was Langa, sliding onto the bench behind him, a leg on either side of Reki’s.

Reki turned off the power sander. “Hello.”

“Hi.” Langa tucked his chin between Reki’s neck and shoulder. Reki held back a mysterious shiver—maybe Langa had brought a draft in with him.

Reki’s instinct was right—the deck was smooth in no time with Langa there. Reki’s phone showed that it was barely nine. Reki pumped a fist. He’d have time to test some different wheels before delivery.

He did his best to ignore the instant rush of cold as he stood up and reached for a pair of axles and a drill.

“Am I still your background?” Langa asked.

It took a second for Reki to realize what he was talking about. He blushed and grabbed two different sets of wheels from a nearby drawer. “Yeah.”

“That’s cute.”

Reki made a face and settled back down between Langa’s legs. “Don’t call it that.”

“Call it what?”

“Cute. I’m not ‘cute.’”

“On the contrary…”

Reki twisted around, surprised. Langa’s face was blank, not in a bored way, but in a way that made it impossible for Reki to tell what the next words out of his mouth were going to be.

“…all the girls at school say so.”

Reki let out a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding. “Shut up,” he laughed, turning back around and knocking his shoulder into Langa’s in the process. “They do not.”

Langa just shrugged, a playful sparkle in his eyes.

“Hey,” said Reki over the sound of the drill, “help me test these wheels, yeah? I’ve never skated on this wobbly crap.”

Langa nodded, because that’s the kind of friend he was. Always one to say yes to Reki’s crazy ideas, his adventures. That was one of the things Reki loved about him. About his bro.

4.

Shadow was a pain in the ass. That’s just who he was.

Miya was craving spumone from Joe’s, and when Reki and Langa overheard Shadow concede to driving and, more importantly, paying, naturally they wanted in.

“I don’t get my paycheck until Friday,” Shadow complained. “Don’t you kids have your own jobs?”

But Reki led Langa in an enthusiastic assurance that their skate shop money was barely pocket change and that if Shadow treated them just this once, they’d be forever grateful and supportive, ‘til death do they part. Of course Shadow had relented, because aside from being a pain in the ass, he was also a softie at heart.

But first and foremost he was a pain in the ass. So after a low-stakes evening of racing, he had burst into Joe’s place in full performance makeup with all three kids in tow, declaring as aggressively as possible that it was his birthday.

After the general commotion had died down and Shadow managed to convince Joe that his “birthday” at least warranted free desserts for his party guests if he ordered one plate of spaghetti for himself (and perhaps pulled a few strings that weren’t strictly  _ not _ blackmail), the group settled into a table for four.

Joe’s pseudo-judgemental stares barely proved to be a damper on the appetites around the table, especially not when the appetites in question were being simultaneously satiated and further tantalized by the rich, creamy Italian ice cream.

Miya was munching happily beside Shadow, who was shovelling down spaghetti like there was no tomorrow. Across from them were Langa, who was savoring his gelato with a soft smile, and Reki, who had already finished his and was now scraping the side of his bowl with one hand and scrolling through Instagram with the other.

Reki straightened subtly, preparing for attack. Then, like a hawk, he swooped in with his spoon and stole the gelato right off the top of Langa’s scoop.

“Oi,” said Langa, smacking his spoon against Reki’s, but the damage had been done.

Reki licked his lips with performative gusto. “Take  _ that _ , archnemesis!”

“‘Archnemesis’?” repeated Langa, playfully incredulous.

Shadow snickered. “That’s his revenge for you being a better skater than him!”

Miya smacked Shadow’s arm, but Reki gave a devilish grin. “That’s right,  _ Snow _ ,” he teased. “If I cannot best you on wheels, then it will become my quest to beat you in everything else!”

“Shut up,” Langa laughed around a defensively hasty spoonful of spumone. “You’re not one of those creeps.”

“That’s what you think,” Reki joked ominously. “What if you don’t know the real—hey!”

Langa reached across Reki and snatched his phone off the table. Reki yelped.

“I do know the real you,” Langa explained, holding Reki back with one arm, closing out all of Reki’s apps in subtle retaliation with the other. “And you care about me! Look!”

Reki made a final hopeless grab for his phone, but Langa held tight, turning it around to display his wallpaper to the whole table.

“Aw,” mocked Shadow. He dissolved into guffaws. “He really does care!”

“The revenge sidequest comes to a humble end,” remarked Miya, studying the scene that played out across the table: Reki was slumped forward, embarrassed, his face buried in his arms; Langa patting Reki’s back apologetically.

What Miya missed were the words that Langa leaned low to whisper in Reki’s ear as he returned the stolen phone, and the brief, muffled conversation that followed:

“You still haven’t changed your background?”

“No? Why would I?”

“I love it.”

“Shut up.”

5.

“Reki! You changed your background!”

“Langa! That so does not matter right now! Call the hospital! I’m going blind!”

“I’m not calling the hospital,” said Langa, selecting a contact from Reki’s phone and raising the phone to his ear. “You’re not going blind. Start rinsing.”

Obediently, Reki set down the power saw and took the water bottle Langa was offering him. He tipped the open end over his face. Blood and water splattered to the workshop floor (admittedly, it was more water than blood, but still). Langa looked faint. Reki didn’t blame him for stepping into the main store to place his phonecall to whomever he had just deemed Reki’s emergency contact.

Fumbling, his injured eye shut tight, he grabbed a handful of paper towels and pressed them to his face, then wandered into the store proper.

To Reki’s surprise, it was Shadow who came crashing through the door, yelling something about why isn’t there an adult here and didn’t Reki have a mom or something who Langa should have called, to which Langa replied with their manager being out on an “errand” that was most likely a date, and that he planned on calling Reki’s mom as soon as the situation had been professionally assessed, and besides, she was busy with the girls’ dance practice right now.

“Hey, guys?” Reki had cut in with a pointed gesture towards the wad of paper towels obscuring half of his face.

More yelling had ensued, which blessedly resulted in Reki being loaded into Shadow’s van and schlepped to the nearest urgent care facility.

When Reki emerged from the examination room back into the waiting room, a bright green bandaid beneath one red eye, Shadow was gone. Langa was sitting with one leg crossed over the other, playing with a thread on the cuff of his pants. He looked up when Reki called his name.

“Reki!” he cried, sitting up properly. “What did the doctor say?”

“No stitches!” Reki grinned, sitting down beside Langa. “Just a splinter. And it wasn’t even in my eye.”

“Will it scar?” asked Langa, raising a hand as if to inspect the redness below Reki’s eye but suddenly changing his mind.

“I hope so! That’d look so cool!” said Reki, swinging his legs. “But probably not. How are we getting home?”

“We call your mom and wait. Shadow had to go back to work.”

Reki sighed. He pulled out his phone (Langa had abandoned his own in a drawer at work amidst all the clamor. Thankfully he had thought to lock the shop before leaving, flipping the sign to the “closed” position before tagging along with Shadow). Before Reki placed his call, he opened settings and switched his wallpaper from its current sleeping portrait of Manager Oka’s pet back to the selfie of him and Langa from over a month ago, avoiding real-life Langa’s gaze all the while.

Then he placed his call.

“Hi, mama…Yeah, I’m at the hospital right now…Nothing, I just got a splinter in my eye—no, no,  _ near _ my eye…No, it doesn’t…I promise, mom…No, Langa’s with me…Yeah, it was the saw…I’m sorry!…I’m sorry, okay?…Yeah, could you pick us up please?…Thank you. I love you…bye.”

Reki hung up. “She’ll be here in fifteen.” His face split into a huge yawn. “Yo, why am I exhausted all of a sudden?”

“You were pretty worked up earlier,” Langa remarked (“Was not!” complained Reki). “Adrenaline can take a lot out of you.”

Reki was planning on elaborating further on how he had not been “worked up,” thank you very much, but when he opened his mouth to speak, another yawn commandeered his speech.

Like a child, he wriggled to get comfortable in the scratchy waiting room chair. What was far more comfortable than the chair, he found, was Langa, so he leaned into the boy’s side, nestling his head into Langa’s shoulder.

That’s when something funny happened. Langa slung his arm over Reki and brought his hand to rest in Reki’s hair. That wasn’t the funny part, and neither was when Langa started to play absentmindedly with Reki’s hair. This was something they did, maybe not often, but often enough that Reki wouldn’t have thought twice about it if the funny thing hadn’t also happened at the same time.

The funny thing was the little twister that came to life in Reki’s belly, kicking up static and scooping up bees. That’s what it felt like, anyway.

It was just like Langa said, Reki’s brain reasoned, tired but still louder than the yelling of every nerve on Reki’s scalp; adrenaline could do crazy things.

The funny feeling kept Reki from catching a quick nap, unfortunately. But he wasn’t upset about it. As funny as it was, it was also sort of…nice.

+1.

Sundays at the skate park were the best. If it had been a habit for Reki and Langa to spend the whole day there before, it was a tradition now.

They had gotten a late start today—Reki’s mom had kept him home to do homework all morning—but even under the thickly overcast sky they did a good job of making up for lost time.

Around sunset, Langa threw himself to the ground, breathless and happy. Reki ollied over him, just as he had when they had first met, before holding out a hand to help him up.

“Come on,” he said. “Let’s go get dinner.”

Langa took his hand, and the funny feeling from the waiting room returned.

It had happened a lot since that first time, every time he and Langa touched—which, Reki was quickly learning, was pretty often. If Langa was experiencing a similar fizz at every point of contact, he didn’t mention it, so Reki kept quiet. And if Reki started finding more excuses, creating more opportunities to touch Langa, to feel the curious sensation bubble up again, well, Langa hadn’t said anything about that either.

They skated together in companionable silence as the light dimmed, the sun long invisible under the dark cloud cover. As Langa kept his head up, his eyes forward, Reki watched him as subtly as he could.

Besides the agility that made him a skateboarding natural, Langa also cut a strong figure against the Okinawa sky. Just then, a gust of wind swirled up, shoving Reki’s center of balance backwards and forcing Langa’s shoulders down, and in that moment, Reki was struck by just how beautiful his friend was.

The timing was nearly perfect—the rain started falling in earnest as the boys were within five meters of the A&W front door. The two of them scooped up their boards, laughing with happy exhilaration. Langa put a hand on the door.

“Wait, wait,” Reki called, fishing his phone out of his sweatshirt pocket.

Langa leaned in as Reki extended his phone for a photo. The camera took a second to focus, as if doing a double take at the dripping wet hair slowly sticking itself to the boys’ foreheads.

Reki raised his hand to frame Langa’s face, and at the last second, on a whim he could only explain away with the crackle of ozone in the air, he turned his own face and pressed a kiss to Langa’s cheek. He snapped a photo in the split second his lips made contact with Langa’s face, his eyes screwed tight.

“What was that?” asked Langa in that way that Reki couldn’t read, and Reki’s heart galloped. His knees and stomach filled with the sensation from the waiting room.

Langa pried the phone from Reki’s hand, and Reki let him. He was powerless to stop him. Before he knew what was happening, Langa was turning Reki’s own trick against him. This time it was Reki being kissed, eyes wide, mouth slightly open, and Langa chronicling his ambush with a photo.

“There,” said Langa. There was so much shaking involved in the handing back of Reki’s phone that Reki almost dropped it onto the wet pavement. “Now we’re even.

“Send me one of those,” he went on, pushing the door open and leading Reki inside. He stopped right before the counter and turned around, his eyes sparkling. Reki’s stomach did an honest-to-goodness flip.

“I want to make it my background,” said Langa with a sly smile. Reki knew that if Langa could, he would be winking right now.

It was funny, the way Reki felt about Langa, the way he felt around him—it was weird, and it didn’t make sense. But it didn’t need to, Reki thought. And if he wanted it to, he was learning from the sparkle in Langa’s eyes and the secret smile on Langa’s face in the picture of him kissing Reki and the special spot on Langa’s lap from all those weeks ago, he was safe to explore. What’s more, he was free to do so. It could be like an adventure.

That’s just what being friends with Langa was like. An adventure.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for being here and for sticking around!
> 
> I am @moon-jellie on tumblr if you care to say hello (or send me prompts!!)--I won't be active until April but that's me!
> 
> Do something nice for yourself today!


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